Roamio Pro locking up

I received my Roamio Pro on October 31st and it was working fine up until 2 days ago. The last 2 days in a row when I turned my TV on around 5pm the TiVo video was frozen and the front panel green/yellow button would not work. I had to unplug and replug the TiVo in to get it back and things where fine until the next day and same thing again.

The only thing that changed was I received a 2nd remote, I leave one near my bed and one near my couch. When I received the 2nd remote it worked just like the first in RF mode. Only difference I notice is when I push the remote finder button on the TiVo only the original remote makes the sounds. Both remotes are working in RF though.

Does anyone know if this could be causing the lockup? I took the batteries out of the new remote and am going to see if it is locked up again tomorrow. Not sure what else could be causing it.

My cat always sleeps on top of it but he always slept on the Premiere and that was never an issue. Plus it was fine for a whole week until I got a 2nd remote.

Uggg it locked up again a 3rd night in a row I had it on all day today listening to a music channel then tonight right at 8pm when it started to record 3 shows at once it froze while I was watching something previously recorded.

I called up TiVo and talked to tech support. They said when it freezes it usually means it's not getting enough power and if its plugged into a power strip plug it directly into the wall. I had it plugged into a UPS and its the same place my TiVo Premiere was for several months and before that my series 3 HD for several years. I don't know how safe it is plugging it directly into the wall with no surge supressor and when the power goes out now the TiVo will restart even for small brown outs. That's why I always had it on a UPS.

They said the new hardware requires more power and is more sensitive than the older models. So I'm not sure what this means. I only have till the 28th to decide on my money back guarantee but this was $975 with lifetime subscription and extended service plan.

Well, if the problem started immediately coincident with firing up and using up the second remote...... But if the problem continues, R&R it before the 30 day cut off. I had a Plus that went infant mortality south after a few days and returned it. Replacement is working fine.

As to your experience with the idiot dope smoking Indian TiVo CS rep....he/she was an idiot dope smoking CS rep.

I stopped using the second remote and even took the batteries out. I never even paired it, just worked out of the box. For now I did what the CSR said and plugged it directly into the wall outlet. If that fixes it, something is seriously wrong when electronics can't use Surge Supressors or a UPS.

As for the CSR whenever I have contacted TiVo its always an american and I can totally understand them. They just read the screen though I'm sure so some tech had to of put that in there.

I called when I first got the box because when I pushed the yellow button the remote finder wasn't working. The first thing they asked me was if it was plugged directly into the wall or in a surge supressor so this must be some issue that is going on with the new boxes. The remote finder didnt work until I restarted the box. So maybe I do have a bad one.

I stopped using the second remote and even took the batteries out. I never even paired it, just worked out of the box. For now I did what the CSR said and plugged it directly into the wall outlet. If that fixes it, something is seriously wrong when electronics can't use Surge Supressors or a UPS.

As for the CSR whenever I have contacted TiVo its always an american and I can totally understand them. They just read the screen though I'm sure so some tech had to of put that in there.

I called when I first got the box because when I pushed the yellow button the remote finder wasn't working. The first thing they asked me was if it was plugged directly into the wall or in a surge supressor so this must be some issue that is going on with the new boxes. The remote finder didnt work until I restarted the box. So maybe I do have a bad one.

-Joe

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Taking back the part about dope smoking Indians when it comes to TiVo CS folk....I can actually sorta understand their asking about surge suppressors. There is some real, 99 cent, junk out there passing themselves off as such and a CS rep has no way of knowing if you're using something APC or something made out of fermented Chinese toe nail clippings.

Given you're using good surge suppressor or UPS, those or a wall outlet aren't germane to your issue.

I agree, btw, that one should be using an UPS for electronic devices one cares about. Learned the hard way...via a lightning strike on a cable head about 25 yards out behind the house back in '97.

Uggg it locked up again a 3rd night in a row I had it on all day today listening to a music channel then tonight right at 8pm when it started to record 3 shows at once it froze while I was watching something previously recorded.

I called up TiVo and talked to tech support. They said when it freezes it usually means it's not getting enough power and if its plugged into a power strip plug it directly into the wall. I had it plugged into a UPS and its the same place my TiVo Premiere was for several months and before that my series 3 HD for several years. I don't know how safe it is plugging it directly into the wall with no surge supressor and when the power goes out now the TiVo will restart even for small brown outs. That's why I always had it on a UPS.

They said the new hardware requires more power and is more sensitive than the older models. So I'm not sure what this means. I only have till the 28th to decide on my money back guarantee but this was $975 with lifetime subscription and extended service plan.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

-Joe

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I live in Florida and all of my electronics are hooked into a power conditioner with a battery backup. We have numerous power surges especially in the summer and I wouldn't even consider plugging a component into the wall. The Roamio Pro is plugged into the battery backup outlet on the conditioner so if the power surges the Roamio doesn't reboot. If Tivo thinks plugging a unit into the wall will resolve the problem they are wrong. If you had a bad UPS you would know it because there would be an indicator light telling you it is bad unless you have a really cheap surge protector.

I wouldn't blame the TiVo rep for suggesting to eliminate using a UPS/surge protector. That's just a troubleshooting technique to eliminate one of the variables.
I would blame him for the misleading info, though. He shouldn't be making stuff up. Of course he could actually believe what he's saying, and that's a sad state of affairs if that is the case.Temporarily plugging the Tivo directly into the wall plug won't hurt anything as long as you don't have something going on (like bad weather) when you do it. When troubleshooting a Tivo, you want to eliminate all external possibilities that *could* affect the troubleshooting process.

Not getting enough power is a good one. What do Tivos use now, 24 watts?
A typical electrical circuit has something like 1800 watts available for use as long as there are no problems with the electrical service delivery (e.g. low voltage).

Well oddly enough since I have plugged it into the wall it hasn't locked up. Its been one and a half days so I'm still waiting to see if it does again.

I have a good UPS its pretty old but I just changed the batteries back in may. It's a belkin with 1000va and has a lot of plugs so I do have a lot plugged into it. TV, Soundbar, Game Computer, Monitor, Phones, etc. I had the TiVo premiere plugged into the same exact place for the previous 6 months with no issues and before that a directv dvr for several years.

I have also been trying to deter my cat from sleeping on it. I used to have a directv dvr that ran pretty hot and he slept on it for ages with no issues. When I replaced it with the TiVo Premiere it had no heat at all but he still slept there out of habit. There where no issues with that either. Has anyone ever had an issue with a cat causing a TiVo to lock up? For now I have a can of compressed air on top of it and anytime he gets close I make a psssst noise and he goes flying out of the room so maybe that will work.

I'll give it a few more days then go back to the UPS if there are no lockups or maybe just get a small UPS for the TiVo itself. I think I have a small office one like a 350va somewhere.

Having the same problem here. System completely locked up twice so far in two weeks. Both times in the middle of the day while no one was home. I'll see if a wall outlet makes a difference, but nothing else seems to be bothered by the UPS power.

Well it will be 3 days without a lockup tonight so I guess I will plug it back into the UPS and see what happens.

There are 3 variables though that changed. The UPS, the cat staying off it, and leaving it unplugged for several minutes that it took me to get to the outlet deep behind the desk to move the plug from the UPS to the wall. The previous times I unplugged it I only waited 10 seconds or so.

The can of sprayed air on there seems to be working wonders for the cat Though I was thinking I could also store my old series 3 HD spare TiVo on top of this one to use as a buffer in case the cat really didn't want to stay off.

On another note I tried to cancel the monthly sub for the old Series 3 because now I have a Premiere and a Roamio both with life times. The CSR did almost everything to get me not to cancel. They finally said they would give me 2 free months and if I can find someone to take it they will give me a $99 life time membership for it. I was like I'll try but I dunno. She was like you can give it to someone for a Christmas gift. I actually upgraded that one with a larger hard drive from weaknees but it only has two tuners and needs two cable cards so its kind of a drag compared to the newer ones.

Well it was fine for three nights so on Wednesday night I went to staples and bought a 600va APC UPS and put it on that. It was ok for over 24 hours then this morning I woke up and it was frozen

So I dunno what's up with it. When it locks up again I may try just connecting it to the surge protection only portion of the UPS. I don't feel comfortable leaving it plugged directly into the wall with no protection. It makes no sense at all that a UPS would cause this.

I only have until the 25th to return this or will have wasted $975. If I ask for a replacement does it reset my month to give it back? I'm just worried if for some reason the new hardware just doesn't like my power or cable and a replacement does the same thing I'll be stuck with it and not be able to use it.

To top it off I ordered the new slide remote and got the roamio one so it doesn't come with the dongle if I should go back to my old premiere. Plus that thing is so damn slow and only has 4 tuners! I want the Roamio to work

I just called TiVo back and talked to another tech and he doesn't think it has anything to do with the UPS. He thinks it was just a coincidence that it didn't lock up for those 3 days. He checked my signal and he says its my 100% signal and 42 SNR. He thinks it is overloading the cards causing a freeze. He suggested getting a 10db Attenuator so I guess I will try that.

I just called TiVo back and talked to another tech and he doesn't think it has anything to do with the UPS. He thinks it was just a coincidence that it didn't lock up for those 3 days. He checked my signal and he says its my 100% signal and 42 SNR. He thinks it is overloading the cards causing a freeze. He suggested getting a 10db Attenuator so I guess I will try that.

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I don't think you have to run out and buy an attenuator. If you have a splitter laying around I'd try that first, but just be sure to connect the other outputs to a load (TV, 75ohm terminator, etc) for proper impedance matching, no signal reflections and noise reduction.

Just locked up again while I was watching a show. The video froze but the yellow remote light was still blinking so I thought it was problem with something when it recorded. I tried rewinding and the bar looked like it was moving but the video still stayed frozen. Finally the yellow light stopped working and I had to unplug it again. Stuck it in the surge only just to see if it changes anything.

I don't have any splitters and I couldn't find an attenuator locally so I ordered one from Amazon. It's just odd that it didn't freeze for 3 whole days when it was plugged in the wall.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to recall that depending on the type of UPS, the output may not be a nice sine wave that comes out of the wall. Perhaps the power supply of the Roamio is sensitive to the type of wave that it receives. It could be even when the UPS switches from line to battery and back causing an imperfect sine wave. Some UPSes will switch to battery if the voltage drops a little or if it is programmed to do a self test every now and then. If this is the case, there are specific (and very expensive) UPS devices that are made to give a clean and consistent sine wave even when switching to and from battery power.

Im starting to have this problem myself. 48 day old roamio pro has locked up twice in the past 7 days. In my case, its happened on Friday evening while record 4 hd channels. im starting to get fed up with TiVo and thinking about going HTPC with the new 6 tuner centon card. All I want is for everything to work as its suppose to... My unit is plugged into a surge protector. (battery backup ups). I had to restart it twice last night. 1st time when it locked up, the 2nd time 53 minutes later when it locked up again. Last Friday the same exact identical problem occurred. Any suggestions?